Can a tiny sensor originally created to track juvenile salmon be repurposed to help save the lives of scuba divers? And if this idea proves feasible, is it a service that dive operators and others would be willing to pay for?

The answer to both these questions just might be yes, according to the MBA and law students that spent the summer investigating this technology as fellows in the University of Oregon's Technology Entrepreneurship Program (TEP).

For the past twelve years, TEP has brought together MBA, law, and science graduate students to work as interdisciplinary teams that explore ways to commercialize technologies developed by partner institutions like ONAMI (Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute), OregonBEST, and the UO Tech Transfer Office, among others.

This year's projects included a low-cost heat exchange technology developed at the University of Oregon's School of Architecture and Allied Arts, a carbon dioxide-based adhesive from the National Energy Technology Laboratory, and a device for collecting dried blood spots from Oregon Health and Sciences University. The salmon-tracking device hails from Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL).

In contrast to students prepping for a business plan competition, who might concentrate on building financials and investment opportunities, TEP fellows focus on a much earlier phase of the entrepreneurial effort.

“The fundamental idea of this program is that you take some technologies that have raw capability and then you figure out if anyone cares—if there's a business opportunity there," said Lundquist Center for Entrepreneurship program manager Nathan Lillegard, who has led TEP for the past two years.

Last year, TEP received a grant from the Oregon Community Foundation to help the program to grow the number of people and organizations it works with around the state. Also in 2013, TEP gained OHSU as its newest technology partner.

“Adding OHSU to the mix means that we now have a linkage between the state's medical school, its top MBA program, and its top law school," said Lillegard.

A former TEP fellow himself (he developed a genomic-sequencing technology into the company Floragenex) and cofounder of SmartUps, the entrepreneurial support organization in Eugene, Lillegard is committed to expanding the connection between the UO's student entrepreneurs and the region's seasoned practitioners.

This growing engagement was reflected in a new TEP event: eight days before the students" final presentations, Eugene's FertiLab Thinkubator hosted a dress rehearsal session so the teams could practice their presentations in front of a highly engaged audience of nearly fifty.

“We were thrilled to host the TEP dress rehearsal," said FertiLab executive director Shula Jaron. "Our mission at FertiLab is to foster the growth of Eugene's startup scene, so supporting the rising generation of entrepreneurs was an ideal fit for us."

Eight days later, the teams made their final presentations—newly polished and refined—to an audience of business and law faculty, researchers, and area entrepreneurs.

Will the tiny salmon-tracking technology take the scuba industry by storm? It's too soon to tell. But one thing is for certain—by tackling this problem and others like it, TEP fellows will continue to gain a visceral understanding of what the entrepreneurial adventure is all about.

“The people at PNNL are not thinking about commercializing the technology by slapping stickers with sensors on scuba divers. That's where our TEP fellows come in," said Lillegard.